Modern server computer installations may include hundreds or even thousands of computer systems. Management of such a large number of computer systems is very difficult. One particularly challenging aspect of the management of a large server computer installation is the process of configuring the operation of a large number of server computers. It is often an extremely tedious and time-consuming process to configure aspects of the operation of a large number of server computers, especially when the server computers are located in different geographic locations.
One reason it is often difficult to configure the operation of a large number of server computers is that the pre-boot environment provided by a typical server computer is often very limited. For instance, basic input/output system (“BIOS”) or Extensible Firmware Interface (“EFI”)-level configuration utilities are often severely memory-limited and, as a result, are restricted in the functionality they can provide for configuring the operation of a server computer. Moreover, it is often impossible in these pre-boot environments to configure custom hardware, such as a redundant array of inexpensive disks (“RAID”) controller card, due to the inability to use hardware drivers in the pre-boot environment that are specific to the custom hardware. In general, current pre-boot environments are severely restricted in their ability to provide meaningful tools for configuring a server computer.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure presented herein has been made.